


Pool Mermaid

by TaigaCowboy



Category: ChaoticMonki | Cryaotic - Fandom
Genre: hetties don't interact, this is not a shipping fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-03-29 04:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13919760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaigaCowboy/pseuds/TaigaCowboy
Summary: Angel, after not doing too much research on a random gym she found nearby, runs into a merman after intending to go swimming. Not really being able to avoid him, she gets dragged into helping the merman fix his wounded fins and getting him out of the abandoned gym.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> yeah some things may not make sense, words may be overused, etc. so don't expect Pristine Writing. I might do a second part to this only bc I like the design I gave Cry LMAO
> 
> Also again, this isn't a shipping fic. This is 100% platonic, especially since Angel has expressed her discomfort with being shipped with Cry, Russ, or any other friends she has. blease respec

Angel honestly wasn’t too sure why she didn’t check for staff. It didn’t seem to cross her mind whatsoever as she walked down the empty corridors of the huge gym, and she didn’t seem too phased when she walked into the changing room to see it unkempt. To her defense there  _ was _ cars outside, along with that she thought she saw someone in the basketball court. Maybe the staff was just dealing with something.

Who knows, all she knew was that the doors were unlocked and that she was there during open hours.

Normally Angel wasn’t one to go to a gym. In fact the last time she willingly went to one was about two or so years ago. Today, she just got a huge impulse to go swimming. Because of that, she bought a one month membership to the gym online, then came in. She did attempt to find someone at the desk so she could check in but she was quick to grow a little impatient and just leave.

She sighed sharply as she stared at the white curtain of the changing room. She wore her swimming suit underneath her clothes, so there was honestly no need to be in it, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous all of the sudden. Why wasn’t there anyone at the desk? Don’t they usually keep someone there, even if there’s a meeting or something? She’s never been to this gym so she wasn’t really sure if it was different. 

Angel furrowed her brows for a moment. She leaned against the wall of the tiny room and sat on the bench next to her bag. Maybe she should’ve called the gym first. Or something.

Combing her fingers through her hair, Angel sat back up before pulling off her top and kicking off the sweatpants she wore over her one piece. She stood directly after too, just to grab all over her things and get out of the cramped space. She’ll, hopefully, deal with any anxiety later. She wanted to check out the gym and go swimming first.

Angel hurried through the changing room, stepping lightly over the weird feeling rugs on the ground, and stuffed her over-clothing into the bag she brought. It took her a minute, but she soon located the door that lead into the pool room. She was honestly surprised when she tried to open it. It was heavy.  _ Very _ heavy. Or was it stuck?

Angel, at first, just tried opening it by twisting the handle and pushing. That didn’t work. She put more pressure on the door with her other free hand. Didn’t work. She pressed her sighed against the door and pushed as harshly as she could. The door slammed open and let her fall over . . . into plants.

Angel sat up quickly after letting out an embarrassingly loud yelp of shock. The fall startled her so badly that she almost didn’t process she was now sitting in a bunch of plants. When she looked down though, her eyes widened in surprise and she scrambled out of it just as quickly as she fell into it. Angel backed up in her panic too, just until her back hit the wall in front of the door.

“Why is there plants?” Angel blurted. She flinched at how loud her voice was.

She sat there for a moment to slow her breathing, and to try and gather her thoughts. Plants covered the pool rooms floor pretty thickly, and on the other door which was the mens room was just as covered. It seemed to thin out the further away from the walls it got though. Angel leaned forward and moved just to see the water of the pool. She blinked when she didn’t see any though. Plants covered the edges of the pool, but asides from that it didn’t look like there was any hint of water. She was amazed at how tall the piles of plants got, but she was also a bit confused about them.

Angel brought her knees to her chest and hugged them, sitting there for another silent moment in her confusion. Should she look around? Should she leave? It was very apparent the place was abandoned now, even though there was a site up for it and the cars outside looked very much clean.

She was very curious about what the rest of the pool looked like though. Angel could only see a part of the pool and it was already so covered. She huffed. She did want to leave . . . but it wasn’t really likely that there was anything dangerous in there so . . .

Slowly, Angel stood and crept to the door, standing next to the frame while holding it. She peeked around the corner, eyes widening in shock as she took in the rest of the room. All of the walls were covered in ivy, and there were even plants stretching across the ceiling to the hanging lights. Ivy also bordered the room where floor and wall met, but once it reached out further than a few feet it thinned out.

It some parts, the pool floor was visible, but in most other parts it was covered. Now she honestly regretted not wearing regular tennis shoes or something similar. There couldn’t be any animals though, the doors were pretty solid and there didn’t seem to be any holes from where the windows were at the front. She hesitated. 

She was going to be an idiot and go into the pool room to look around.

Angel picked up her bag and quickly went to the mirrors that were next to the doors. There was some clear counter space, so she set her bag there and zipped everything up. After making sure she had all that she wanted to bring with her, Angel went back to the door and exited the women’s changing room. She continued to hesitate though.

Shyly, Angel went further out into the pool room. She crossed her arms and pretty much kept herself as small as possible. Even though she was somewhat certain no one else was in the pool room, she didn’t want to be noticed. Angel stepped over the plants carefully and made sure she didn’t place her feet down too hard to cause noise. It was a bit hard to keep noise down, but it wasn’t too loud.

Angel went around the pool to the back, not going near the edge or close enough to look at the bottom of it. She frowned lightly. What if there was something in the pool? Angel scurried over to the very back wall, trying to distract herself by looking over the benches, old equipment, and other things that laid around the area. There was some purses, bags, and other stuff obvious brought in by those who used to attend the gym. Why did this gym still have its website up? The website was for this exact gym too, and she was able to talk someone who worked there via text on the site itself. This was weird.

Angel held her arms tighter and even slouched.

She flinched harshly when there was a sudden, loud trill of clicking. “What the fuck!” Angel whispered, backing up to the wall again. She stopped when she felt plants on her back, shuddering at the feeling before jumping away from that. There was another round of clicking.

It sounded like an animal, almost like a bird, but the sound was way too deep to be a bird. And it came from the bottom of the pool. Adrenaline immediately filled her, making her feel weak pretty quickly. Angel stood frozen where she was. The clicking sounded again.

The last time though, the clicking sounded as if the animal was straining itself. Splashing also came after it, but it was very quiet so she nearly didn’t catch the noise. Angel moved her hands to hold her temples, fear catching up with the adrenaline as she tried to figure out what to do. She didn’t know what to do. Run back to the women’s room or look at what was in the pool? She was pretty split between both.

Taking in a deep breath, Angel finally decided to take a small look at the pool before running as fast as she could to the women’s room.

Hesitating once again, Angel crept to the edge of the pool. It took her longer than probably needed to get to the edge. She was pretty scared of letting whatever in there see her, but she knew it was inevitable that it would if she went near it. Plus it seemed like it already knew she was there. Angel neared the edge after another second, finally focusing on what was in the pool instead of where she put her feet.

It took her a second, especially since the pool was pretty deep. Soon enough she was able to start making out what was there. Angel froze in her spot.

Water filled the deep end of the pool, and there was some puddles in the more shallow end, but something was in the water. At first she thought it was a person. She was able to see the entirety of them though, and a mess of tail, fins, spines and what resembled whiskers was spread out behind them. She gasped in her shock, taking a shaky step back as she started at it.

It was looking directly at her with bright, unnerving blue eyes. The things eyes were so blue that it looked almost neon, even from where she was standing. The thing had its neck sunk in the water, but she could still make out the dark blue gills that flared while they tried to take in water. Her hands covered her mouth as she stared at it, whimpering in fear as she took another few steps back.

The thing rose in the water, struggling to hold itself up. It let out some sort of croak that made Angel finally dart. She ran to the women’s room as fast as she could. Tears pricked her eyes, and because of how bad of a scare she got she almost didn’t hear the alarmed squawk it made from her running. Angel grabbed the door and ran into the room, slamming the door shut and going all the way back to the changing area. She hurriedly ran back when she realized she left her stuff, but once it was in her hands she went to the changing rooms again.

“Oh my god, oh my god--” She pulled open a curtain, threw the bag onto the bench, “Oh my  _ god _ ,” She closed the curtain and hopped onto the bench herself. Angel kept her feet off the ground, somehow under the impression that the thing would follow her. After a second or two of trying to calm down Angel moved to get her phone out of her bag. She turned it on and unlocked it, but it wasn’t until she got to the dialpad that she realized that there was no service, “Of course there isn’t, what the  _ hell _ .”

Angel swallowed thickly and put her phone in her lap, slowing down her breathing as much as she could as she tried to process what she saw. What  _ was _ it? She could’ve just imagined the fins and . . . everything else. She knew for sure mermaids weren’t real. At least not in a  _ pool in a giant gym _ . Why would a human ‘click’ though? Or just make weird noises when needing help in general. Angel huffed.

She sat there for almost thirty minutes before finally deciding to look again. It had to have been imagined. She knew that because she was scared when looking over the edge, and sometimes people hallucinate when scared. It happened to everyone.

This time instead of just going in her swimming suit, she pulled on her sweatpants and kept her phone with her. 

With another moment of hesitation, Angel got up from the bench and exited the changing room. The door was still shut. She used that as a reassurance that the thing wasn’t chasing after her. She held her phone to her chest and went to the door. This time it wasn’t as hard to open the door since she already ripped the plants. Instead of struggling with the door this time, the door decided to let out a horrible screech. This alerted whatever was in the pool, and splashing soon came from it. A few, not as loud screeches came from the pool in response to the door.

Angel pursed her lips and stayed there for a second.

When she pushed herself to leave the door once more, she went to the closest edge and looked into the pool again. She hadn’t imagined it. Angel let out a shocked whimper and backed a step or two away. The thing saw her nonetheless. Previously it had been stretched out, but now it was curled in a tight ball and was lifting its torso on top of the rest of its body. 

Angel got hit with guilt when she saw its face. It’s deathly pale face was now flushed a light pink, and it looked like the thing had been  _ crying _ . It’s blue eyes looked paler too, so now it wasn’t as shocking as it’d been before.

Angel crouched near the edge and went close to it, looking the animal-- thing over more closely. It overall had really pale skin, to the point it was starting to look like a really light grey, but the rest of its body had dark colors to it. The fins and body was a dark blue, but in some spots it shined in a lighter blue. The spines, whiskers, and fins below its hips had stripes of gold though. As for the hair on its head, she couldn’t tell if it was just a dark brown or black since it was wet and stuck to its head.

As she continued to stare at it, it slowly started flaring at her. Flaring in the way where it stretched the skin to try and make itself look bigger. Its whiskers and spines did the same too, and an attempt was made with its fins. The thing was quick to climb off of itself and sink into the water. It kept its tail curled in a ball though, and hid behind it. Angel scoffed. The made the thing shoot back up with an angered look.

Curling its lips back, it hissed and showed off its fangs. It looked like there was more than just the canine set too. It did intimidate her, but seeing that it was stuck at the bottom of the pool she felt she’d be ok for a little bit. It wasn’t making any motion to try and move from its spot.

“How’d you get in here?” Angel suddenly asked, even surprising herself. It’s flared gills faltered for a second, and the furrow in its brow seemed to lessen. It hesitated, looking around. It shakily pointed to one of the filters. She blinked. There was no way that it managed to fit through the filter at this current state, so she was going to assume it was when it was younger. The thing let itself drop.

She flinched at the loud splash, and the thing let out a loud noise of pain at the drop. When it resurfaced it looked mad again. Angel bit into her lips to keep her from scoffing again, but even with that she pretty much did. It looked at her and hissed again, but this time not as loudly as the first.

Angel properly sat down on the ground and watched the thing. It began unwrapping itself and moving to stretch out again. This time though, once fully stretched, it began tugging at its tail. Angel looked back at the spot it had been in, letting out a small gasp when she saw that its tail was stuck in the drain. It was a normal, square drain that had a cover over it, but with this one the cover was broken enough that its tail was lodged into it. It pulled at its tail again, letting out a low whimper from the pain before trilling in her direction. 

She looked back up at it and it pointed at its stuck tail in return. She pointed at herself, “Wh-- I can’t--” She stammered as it nodded quickly, waving the hand pointing at its tail with a pleading look, “I won’t be able to--”

It hissed again and started crawling towards her. It got as close to her as it could, making her crouch again as she watched. It reached up to her and whined. Guilt hit her again. She honestly wasn’t the strongest person, or the best person to be doing this job. She looked between the ladders near the shallow end and where it was reaching up to her. It let out another whine and let itself sink to the ground, panting heavily before scurrying back to the water.

Angel stood while it wasn’t looking, hesitating before jogging over to the shallow end. When it looked back up at that spot, it let out a horrified squeak and splashed around in its confusion. Angel raised her brows and watched it splash the water while looking at that spot, face twisting to look like it was about to cry.

“I--” It’s head snapped towards her, “I’m right here, don’t worry.” She called over to it, slowly moving to the ladder. It let out a long, growl-like noise and huffed through its nose, squirming over to her direction again. It sniffled. Angel climbed down the ladder, waiting for a second when her foot touched the bottom. It was weird to be in an almost empty pool, especially one this big. Stuffing her phone into her pocket, she tried to reassure herself about this while it looked at her.

Angel walked over to where the pool began to dip and hesitated again. It looked like it was about to head to her again, but it quickly switched to going back to the water and dipping its neck into it. Now that she looked at the water, it looked filthy. Leaves and sticks were scattered in it, and it looked there was algae in it.

The thing watched her with a close eye as it drank-- well  _ breathed _ in the water. Angel cringed lightly. Algae wasn’t exactly the best thing for fish to her knowledge. She didn’t know if it was any different for mermaids though. Sighing just to clear her mind, she started carefully walking down the pool. As she did, she realized how  _ huge _ the thing was. Even with it stretched out, it looked like the tail went up to her knees from above the water, and she didn’t even know how much further down the water went.

Once Angel was a meter or two away from the drain and tail, the animal started slowly creeping towards her. She watched it, adrenaline kicking in once again as it flared its gills and crawled.

“Why do you keep trying to threaten me?” She asked, once something in her made her brave enough to do it, “I’m-- I’m going to try and help you, y’know.” It hesitated and let out a small hissing noise. Its gills slowly laid flat at the comment, and it look away as if embarrassed. It crawled up to her, then past her. She watched in silent awe. One of its webbed hands landed next to her feet, which made her eyes widen slightly as she saw the comparison between them. It was moved quickly though, so she didn’t get a really good look at it.

The thing finally made its way past her and it stopped next to the drain, poking at its tail lightly.

Hesitating for the millionth time, Angel paused before pulling up her sweatpants and stepping over him to get closer to the drain. The drain wasn’t active anymore, which made her suspect that he broke it with his fin, but she was still worried that it’d kick back on as soon as the tail was pulled out. She looked back up at the fish and hummed. It hummed back, clear lids closing over its eyes for a quick second. Angel raised her brows.

It backed away once again and sunk down, stretching out an arm to start picking at the scales on its stuck tail. Thankfully it looked like the tail was thinner, so hopefully it’d be lighter and easier to pull out. He did have pretty big fins though, so it’d probably just be the same weight. Rolling up her sweatpants, Angel got closer to the drain and crouched down. She glanced between the fish and the drain while pulling out the broken pieces of the cover. She was still a bit nervous about this.

Did this thing eat humans? Is that why there was still stuff left behind by visitors? Or did he just scare the visitors? Angel frowned and finally completely put her focus on the cover. How did he even end up here long enough to grow so  _ huge _ ? And without anyone seeming to notice?

As she asked herself these things she scooted around to pull off the rest of the cover. She tossed it away and looked into it, cringing at the fray of fin and spines. What looked like blood was dried on some of it, but on others there was still some bleeding. How long ago did he get stuck here?

The fish let out a cooing noise just as something cold brushed against her leg. Angel jumped up with a yelp, turning to look at the equally surprised mermaid--  _ merman _ . She huffed.

“. . . What?” She asked. It paused and pointed at its tail again, “I’m workin’ on it,” She replied, pointing down at the tail too. They stood like that briefly before Angel crouched again and crawled over to the other side of its tail. She looked into the drain and began, very carefully, flattening the fins. The fish hissed in pain, letting out an annoyed growl, but she ignored him. As slowly as she could, Angel reached further into the drain and lightly pulled at the spines and fins. The majority of it was loose, but there was a spot that seemed to be stuck in something.

Angel, while the fish continued to hiss and growl behind her, gently pulled out as much as she could. All of it looked torn up, and there was multiple holes in the fin, but it looked like those parts weren’t really bleeding. The parts that were was still stuck in the drain.

“Hey,” Angel said, leaning away from the drain. She pulled her phone from her pocket, turning it on so she could turn on the flashlight. She stood, turning to the fish and offering her phone, “Hold this so I can get your tail out-- over the drain.” It took a second to process that, but even if it did understand what she said, it took the phone and started toying with it, “No-- hold it over the drain.” She pointed at his tail, and he stared at her for a second.

The fish turned the phone around in his hands, looked right down at it, and flashed the light in his eyes. With a loud hiss, it shoved the phone back into her hands and squeezed its eyes shut. Angel couldn’t help but get a grin on her face from that. She scoffed, just before giggling.

“I didn’t say in your eyes,” She added. The fish growled. Because of the startle it crawling off to one of the corners, as far away from the phone as he could get. Angel sighed softly before crouching by the drain again. With one hand holding the phone, she carefully reached into the drain again and pushed fin and spine away so she could see. The fish continuously growled as she did this, except it was garbled because he’d laid down right into the water.

She glanced at him, stifling a laugh at seeing him face down.

Now more at ease, she was starting to get more confident about getting his tail out. She aimed the light at one of the spines that was stuck. The spine was stuck under broken parts of the cover. She dug out the cover parts first, making sure not to cut her hand, and soon the spine was free. It was bleeding at one of the parts that had been pinned down, but otherwise there wasn’t any other damage to it.

There was fin stuck in there too, but it was stuck in the metal walls of the drain. She sat there for a second, trying to figure out the easiest and less painful way to pull it out. She could just yank the parts out, but that would risk chunks being torn off and her getting mauled, or she could ease out the parts but still risk getting mauled even with the whole fin still there. She hummed in thought. The fish hummed in response.

Angel glanced at him for a moment.

“Hey,” She said, “This might hurt you.” The fish sat up and looked at her, just before crawling over to her. Angel stiffened as it did. She watched what he did pretty closely, especially since he didn’t seem to give much more reaction asides from getting up. He plopped down next to the drain, causing water to splash onto her.

Angel gasped in shock and covered her phone while she backed away the best she could.

“Oh my god!” She huffed, wiping water off of her face. After that she used the same hand to shove the mermans shoulder gently, “You didn’t have to do that!”

The fish sat up far enough so his mouth was above the water, then he let out a soft trill before laying it on the ground again. Where the drain was there wasn’t too much water, so not much of his face was covered anyways. Angel sighed and waited for a minute before continuing.

She turned back to the drain, shining the light over the drain again. Angel reached down and got a light grip on the end of a spine stuck in the metal. She glanced at him one last time, seeing that he had his eyes closed, before starting to tug on the spine. His eyes shot open and he hissed immediately, teeth bared again. The spines and fins on his back shot up too, which honestly surprised Angel and made her stop.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” She said, “We-- some of it is out though . . .” Angel looked at the drain again. She actually got more of the spine out than she thought. There was an indent on the spine where it was caught, and it was pretty high up. His more violent hissing soon turned quieter, and it got quieter with each gasp of air he took to continue it. Soon, as he laid back down, it was a soft, almost hard to tell sound that made Angel giggle. It was honestly drawn out longer than it probably should’ve been.

She returned to the task, and over the course of ten minutes, she managed to pull the rest of his tail out of the drain.

As soon as all of it was out, he took in a big breath of water and sat up. He also hugged the end of his tail and began “grooming” it. Angel stood up while he did this, rerolling her sweatpants and turning off the flashlight on her phone. Soon the fish rolled over onto its side while he groomed the fins, not paying anymore mind to Angel. She crossed her arms at that.

“Do I not get a thank you?” She asked, lightly kicking the merman’s tail. The merman jumped at the kick, looking up at her with widened eyes and his snake-like tongue hanging out of his mouth, “. . . Your tongue is weird.”

He let out an offended huff and pointed at her legs, then he splashed the water with an angered expression.

“Are you telling me my legs are weird?” She giggled, bursting into a fit of laughter when he nodded, “My legs are _not_ _weird_ , you’re the only merman I’ve ever seen so you’re weird.” The fish paused at that, even letting go of his tail.

Angel quieted her laughter, now concerned if she had said something wrong. The fish looked surprised more than anything, really.

He raised a hand, holding up his index finger with a tilt to his head.

“One? Y-Yeah you’re the only one.” Angel replied hesitantly. The merman got a look of disappointment on his face, and soon it turned to a more depressed expression. He scooted over to her and pressed his finger to her stomach. She flinched and looked between him and his hand.

“Nno--” He stammered, making her blink in surprise, “Moo-omma? Ssssiss-- sisster . . .” He pulled his hand away and looked around, humming in worry before wiggling off to one side of the pool, “Buhh-- . . . brotherr . . . rrr . . .”

As he mumbled, he looked up and down the wall. Before Angel could say anything more, he leaned down very close to the wall, looking just like he was about to pounce. And that pretty much was what he did. He launched himself up high enough for his hands to hook onto the edge of the pool. Angel’s eyes widened in shock and she gasped loudly, watching as he moved over to the opening of the filter. He stuck his hand in, head going directly after.

“No! Dude-- you can’t--” She ran over to the wall, “You can’t go into the filter!” He let out a growl in response and tried fitting himself in, but on top of his head being too big, he couldn’t seem to figure out how to get his shoulders in, “Get out of the filter you oversized fish!” Angel, quite gently, kicked his tail before pushing on it.

The merman let out a defiant hiss before pulling away from the filter-- seeming to forget that he should grab onto something --a shrill screech coming directly after when he began to fall. Angel yelped in shock too, jumping away and yelping again when he landed. Thankfully he landed in the water, but it still sounded painful.

“I didn’t mean to do that, fishy!” She exclaimed, darting over to him, “I’m so sorry!” Angel couldn’t even describe the guilt she felt when she first noticed he was falling. She wanted him to get down but  _ not like that _ . 

Once at his side, she crouched down as far as she could without getting her sweatpants wet and hesitated. He stayed under the water, not even reacting to her being next to him, which made her beyond worried. Did he get knocked out? He couldn’t be . . . dead could he? She didn’t see any blood . . .

Angel waited for another few seconds, anxiety bubbling up as she did.

Suddenly, the merman launched himself out of the water. Angel screamed out in horror, screaming once again when she was grabbed and thrown back. She grunted loudly when they landed. But, as soon as she recovered from the light daze, she began squirming in his arms. He was moving her though.

“Let me go!” Angel cried, struggling as he dragged her up the slope of the pool. They got there surprisingly quickly, and once there he put her down and shoved her away. After rolling for a second, Angel stopped herself and sat up while laying on her stomach. She panted heavily, arms shaking from adrenaline, “What the fuck was that?!” 

The merman didn’t acknowledge her shouting at him, he just continued back down the pool and went to the furthest corner from her. When he reached said corner, he curled up as tightly as possible and grabbed the end of his tail. He began grooming it again but this time with a more pissy look. Angel turned onto her back before sitting up, crossing her legs as she started at him.

“I’m gonna leave,” Angel said after a brief silence, “I shouldn’t even be here anyway, this place is abandoned so . . .” The merman glanced at her while she talked, not seeming to react until she said ‘abandoned.’ With that, he crawled over the small pile of his tail and started crawling over to her. She crossed her arms, pretty much pouting as she waited to see what he was doing.

It took him a minute, but eventually he reached her and started circling around her. It wasn’t until the second loop that she realized what he was doing.

“I gotta go!” Angel huffed, uncrossing her arms to stand. As soon as her mouth shut, the fish tightened the loop abruptly and got tight enough that Angel couldn’t move her legs. She looked down at his tail, brows furrowed, “I don’t like you,  _ fish-boy _ .” The merman didn’t seem insulted, “I really don’t. You suck.”

The merman climbed up the loops and settled, laying at Angels side. She sat there for a moment and crossed her arms once again.

“Can you let me go?” Angel asked, turning to look at him, “I’m not supposed to be here.” He patted her back just before flinching. He paused and began poking her back, “What’re you doing?” Angel twisted as far around as she could, making the merman look up at her.

“Fin.” He said quietly, “. . .  _ fin _ ?”

“. . . I don’t have any fins . . .”

“Fin.”

He poked her back with the tip of his nail, making her yelp and move away from it.

“No fins!” Angel said, then began to start pulling herself out of the tail. It progressively got tighter as she did, but she managed to get almost completely out. The only thing stuck now were her feet. She stood on him like that for a second before sitting on him. “Let my feet go.”

He shook his head, “Nnoo abandon. No,” He shifted so he was sitting in front of her, sitting up fully so he pretty much towered over her, “Bad.” Angel pursed her lips.

“I’m not going to abandon you, I just gotta . . .” She hesitated, “. . . go . . .”

“Abandoned-ed!” He hit his lap.

“No! I’ll come back maybe!” Angel replied, hitting her lap too.

“ _ Maybe _ ?!” The merman hissed, “Nno!” He dragged out the ‘o’ while a genuinely panicked look popped up, “Stay,” He pressed a finger to her knee. “. . . Tail hurts.”

“Pff-- I can’t do anything about that,” Angel pushed her hair out of her face, “I can groom dogs but I don’t know anything about fish.” He looked confused, even tilting his head.

“. . . ‘Dogs’?” He pursed his lips, “No dogs.” With the finger that poked her knee, he pointed to the windows. On the window closest to the door, there was a white and red sign. She couldn’t see what it said from where they were, but she assumed it had rules saying dogs weren’t allowed in the pool.

“I don’t--” Angel looked back at him. He was chewing on the webbed parts of his hand, “I don’t have any dogs with me,” She pulled his hand away from his mouth but he followed his hand, going back to chewing on it when she stopped, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to chew on your hands while your tail is injured.”

He glanced at her, the pupils in his eyes narrowing to barely noticeable slits. He growled, pupils reverting to huge circles. Then he started chewing on his hand again. Angel let go of his wrist, and he pulled away to continue.

“Uhm . . . I still can’t help your tail,” Angel said, “I don’t really think there’s much study on mermaids.” He furrowed his brows and licked over the parts of the webbing that got punctured.

“No?”

“Nope,” Angel shrugged, “Unless you’re a specific kind of fish I don’t know what to do,” She hesitated, “Well-- I can look up that specific kind of fish and read about it but--”

“‘Betta’.”

Angel blinked, “You have like . . . spikes though,” She said, furrowing her eyebrows too, “And you’re really long.”

“ _ ‘Betta’ _ ,” He said, “M . . . moms . . . betta.” He poked his stomach, “Mom.” Angel pursed her lips, sighing when he whined. “I dunno where m-- mom went! Sss . . . sfilterss . . .” The accent he had was very thick, so she nearly didn’t catch what he said.

“Ok, fish-dude,” Angel started pulling on her feet, making him perk up with a concerned look, “Let me go home, and I’ll find out how to help betta tails. Then I’ll come back with like . . . medicine, if that even exists.” He tightened his tail just after she pulled out one foot.

“N-Noo . . .” He whispered, reaching after her foot. Angel slapped his hand away.

“I’ll be able to make your tail not hurt if you let me go home for tonight!” Angel said, “I don’t have like . . . service here so I can’t do it here.” The merman set his hands in his lap and stayed silent for a moment.

With a deep sigh, “Fi-ine,” He hit his hands on his lap and whined, “Morning.” He pointed at the ceiling just before pushing off of the pile of his tail. She opened her mouth to respond, but she stopped when she noticed his eyes welling up.

“Are you--” She stuttered, “You know what, I’ll just see you tomorrow you  _ Cry-baby _ .”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been a year and 8 days since ive updated this . Yeehaw.

The first thing Angel did when she returned to the gym was actually look through the place.

No one came to the first desk, so instead of going in the direction of the pool, she went the opposite way. A ramp was just outside of an empty room. The lights were on in it, so it didn’t take her long to see it was a room meant for kids, but there wasn’t a single person in there. The TV had a game playing on it, the mini-games lined against the wall were active, and basketballs were all over the room. She didn’t go in there first though, she went up the ramp. At the top there were rooms where smaller children would be, a nursery, and at the end of the pretty long hall there was an actual gym area.

She heard something in the gym though.

“Hello?” She called, walking in just beyond the desk. It sounded like someone was using one of the machines, but it came from around the corner. Angel tried looking as closely as she could into the mirrors of the place. A machine  _ was  _ being used, but she couldn’t see who was using it. She kept her eyes on the machine as much as possible before she reached the turn. When she turned, no one was at the machine, and the handlebars were set as if they’ve yet to be used. Angel furrowed her brows.

This was one of the things that confused her. The pool room was destroyed and looked abandoned, but every other place was clean and looked nice. The only room that was even close to looking like the pool room was the actual basketball court behind it. Was that mermaid really the only living thing here? Seeing how fucked up his tail had gotten-- and the fact he was a giant --made it hard for her to believe that  _ he  _ was the one keeping it running. 

Another thing she noticed; she had service everywhere  _ except _ for the pool room.

After the whole ‘thought there was someone in the gym’ she promptly left the area. Then she looked into the concession stand, then the restrooms, then she wandered past the front desk. She stopped a few feet away though. Would there be someone in the staff room? Or whatever it was behind the desk.

Since no one seemed to be in this building, she was going to find out. Angel went behind the desks and grabbed the door handle that lead into the backroom. Something on one of the computers beeped. She froze for a second.  _ What was that? _

The computer in question beeped again and lit up, showing the screen to log into the account.

Letting go of the handle, Angel went over to it. Thankfully the password was written on the sticky note taped to the desk. She,  _ very  _ hesitantly, logged in. The computer loaded for a few seconds before opening to a browser that had a lot of tabs open. There was a screen that showed sign ins, another that showed the gyms website-- which was STILL running and HAD a woman who answered the phone calls, and several others that showed different activities the gym held.

This all lead to her discovering one thing: no one was in the gym. Except for the oversized fish that was howling about something in the pool room. Honestly she felt she wasted a good thirty minutes or so of her life wandering around, and the ten minutes she spent at the computers trying to find out what was going on. This was all especially confusing since there were cars parked outside.

Angel was going to ask the mermaid about it.

Instead of leaving her things inside of the changing room, she brought her bag with her. On top of asking about the disappearance of literally everyone in this building, she was going to throw some medicine meant for bettas at him.

As Angel got closer the the pool room, the mermaids howling got louder. What was he going on about? He didn’t sound like he was hurt or anything. It just sounded like he was trying to imitate whales or something.

Like the day before Angel pushed the door open with as much force as she could, and she stumbled a bit when it swung open.

His howling stopped.

The merman from yesterday was sitting just before the actual pool, laying across the floor with a bit of his tail sitting in the water. He was staring right at her with a  _ frill  _ starting to rise around his neck.

Her first instinct was to go back into the changing room, but as soon as she considered it the frill was down and he was quite literally slithering towards her.

“Lady from yesterday?” He said, trilling a bit, “Lady from yesterday. I have-- I have thing.” The merman stopped a few feet away from her.

“You have thing?”

“I have thing!” He actually looked pretty excited, “Since um-- my tail. You got my tail out of the drain. I have thing for you.” Angel blinked.

“Wait really?” That wasn’t really something she had been anticipating. The merman nodded before slithering off again to the back of the pool room. Angel slowly followed him, messing with the strap of her bag as she did. He lifted a whole section of concrete from the ground and opened something that looked like a box. That made her jog over to him.

While she intended to see if there was some kind of chest, the first thing that got her attention was a  _ very  _ large fish. The merman promptly dropped it in front of her-- making her yelp in surprise --before he set the chunk of concrete onto a bench. The fish was  _ huge _ . It almost looked to be as long as her leg.

“I got you fish!” The Merman said, sitting back onto his own tail, “Um-- m-mers? Mers get others who save them presents.”  _ Oh no. _

“Oh,” Angel said quietly, still staring at the fish. It looks freshly caught, and the scales on it was pretty shiny, but the problem here was that Angel had no purpose for this fish. She doesn’t eat fish, and it was . . . pretty dead. The merman in front of her trilled, one of his fins hitting the ground gently, “I um--”

“Do not like it?”

“Oh! No, no I just--” Angel toyed with her hair, “I don’t eat fish,” That’s when she finally looked back up at him. He looked at her as if confused, “It’s-- it’s a pretty fish! I just don’t know what I’d do with it.”

“Humans don’t eat fish?”

“Some do, I don’t.”

“Oh,” The Merman blinked and immediately started chewing on the webbing between his fingers again, “Umn-- do you want fishes scales? I can take them off for you.”

Thankfully she kept the fish medicine in the bag she got from the store.

“Uhh-- sure!” Angel replied, “You can have the rest of the fish, so it isn’t wasted-- if you want.”

The merman stammered, “But fish is your present!” Angel pulled at a bit of her hair at that.

“I know, but you--” Angel stopped herself.  _ You look like you really need it. _ “Well-- I don’t . . . I would really like for you to have the rest of it. I’ll take some of the scales to keep from it, and you can eat.”

The Merman pouted for a second, “I will get you more things for present then, scales not enough,” He paused, “Do you . . . like rock?” As he said this he picked up the blue tinged fish. He shifted so his tail was in front of him and he was sitting on the ground. Angel set her bags down while nodding.

“Yep! I have a few rocks at home that I keep.”

“Oh-- humans like rocks better than fish?”

“Uhh-  _ I  _ do, I can’t speak for every human though,” Angel said, watching as he used a claw to neatly strip a side of the fish of its scales. The merman trilled and nodded, now more focused on the fish.

When he got the strip from the fish, he set it down and started wandering over to the other side of the pool. Angel blinked. What was he doing?

Before she followed though, she peaked at the chest in the ground. There were a  _ lot  _ of rocks and sticks tucked into it. There also looked to be something gold looking beneath some of it, but she wasn’t able to investigate it before the merman came back over. Angel flinched when she was nudged by him. She looked over as if to see someone her height, but she ended up having to look up. The merman was holding the strip of scales that was now dripping wet.

“Cleaned it,” He said, “So no blood on it.”

“Thank you,” Angel hummed, she took the strip and folded it to the best of her abilities. She looked at it for a second. The scales almost looked iridescent, similar to the mermans scales-- wait did he have scales? Angel looked at him again, “Can I look at your tail?”

The merman trilled and sat on the ground again, picking up his tail and setting it in front of him. She assumed that was a yes. Angel stepped towards his tail and leaned towards it. Then she set her hand on it. He felt  _ slimey,  _ and when she lifted her hand there was definitely something other than water on her hand. She shook her hand and furrowed her brows.

“Are you supposed to be this slimey?” She asked. The mermans fin-like ears flattened against his head. He looked confused.

“Kind of?” He said, “Why?” Now that she thought about it, her clothes from yesterday did ended up having discoloration in them.

“Is it-- is it supposed to be kind of poisonous or whatever?”

“Um-- to whales,” He leaned over and started patting the spot she touched, “Sometimes whales uhm--” He started stammering badly, “B-Bite.” He pointed to a spot at the end of his tail where the three different fins met. There were some indents in it.  _ I guess I shouldn’t bring up whales then. _

“Oh,” Was all she said for a second. Then she touched the spot again and actually pet him, “You kind of feel like a slimier version of a sting ray.”

“Sting ray?” He visually perked up at that, “I like eating sting ray!” Angel blinked, “The barb tail is good for my tail. Taste good. Haven’t eaten one since pool time though.”

“How long have you been in the pool?”

“Fifty cenz,” He blinked, “Wait,” His ears began twitching, “Eighty years! For you.” Angel looked up at him in confusion.

“You’ve been here for  _ eighty years? _ ” She asked, “This gym hasn’t even been here for twenty!” The merman trilled.

“The pool has! Used to be local inside pool,” He said, “I got here when I was slightly smaller? I think. It abandoned few years before I was put here. Then they built gym recently um-- for their people.”

“. . . ‘Their people’?”

“Their people,” He repeated, “Don’t know how you found the site, but I am glad. They don’t help me.” Angel hummed, now more confused than she was before.

“Am I--” She paused, walking backwards to her bag to grab the plastic sack out of it, “Am I able to see them?”

“Sometimes,” The merman laid down and started slowly pushing himself towards the pool.  _ What the fuck, what the fuck, what the f-- _

“Wait when was there water in the pool?” Angel asked, now looking at it. The water looked clear, turning darker the deeper the pool got. It looked like a normal gym pool if you ignored the plants bordering it and stretching across the still surface. 

“Refilled it when you left yesterday,” He said, “They fixed drain a bit so um-- hopefully don’t get stuck anymore,” He dipped his head under the water before almost gliding all the way in. His tail stopped on the ledge. Angel was about to go push on his tail, but he started squirming and slapping his tail against the ground before the rest of it fell in. She scoffed at that.

She shoved the folded strip of scales into the plastic sack and pulled out two dark brown bottles from it. The medicine specifically for bettas. When she was buying it, the worker who specialized on the fish had asked about her buying so much of the medicine. ‘One bottle will probably do him just fine!’ Honestly she probably needs the entire shelf of meds for this ‘betta’. She’d said she was getting another bottle just in case.

Angel walked along the side of the pool, looking in the water for the giant. She saw the end of his tail before he disappeared into the deep end of the pool. She huffed, figuring she lost him, but the closer she looked into the water the most she saw a glow in it. Angel went to the shorter side of the pool at the deep end. Something was glowing. She crouched next to the ledge and pushed some of the plants out of the way, which caused the water to ripple.

Quickly, the thing that was glowing darted up the surface. It was the merman.

Angel screamed in surprise-- falling backwards --when water splashed all over her, and screamed again when the merman crashed onto the platform. It was a  _ loud,  _ dull thunk, and the merman let out a hiss of pain before rolling onto his back.

“What was that for?!” She said, scrambling to get back up. The merman groaned and rolled over again. Then he started the howling again, “Why are you doing that?”

“Thought you were food!” He howled, “Because you moved plant. Don’t move plant. Fish Noise.”

“What?”

“Fish-- fish brain,” He slapped the side of his face, “Think food is there when plant move. Fish noise.” He started howling again, and it was louder than him breaking the surface of the water and landing on the platform.

“Hey!” Angel yelled over it, making him stop pretty quickly, “Why do you keep howling about it?!” 

“I . . .” He rolled onto his back, “Complaining, um-- how normally speak. Don’t normally speak human.” Angel huffed and stood, looking down at herself. Her clothes were soaked. 

“I see,” She said, “Were you complaining before I got here? I heard you while I was looking around.”

“Um,” The merman stammered and let his hand fall onto the ground, “Yeah. Complaining about food. I like big, big fish, but I was saving that big fish for you.”

“Oh-- you can eat it now.”

The merman huffed and sat up, going back into the water. Instead of going straight down, he glided across the surface and lifted himself onto the platform of the shallow end. He grabbed the fish and swam back over. As soon as he was next to Angel, he let the fish plop onto the ground, then he dug right into it. Angel moved over and pursed her lips while watching. The fish was quite literally gone within seconds, save for whatever bones he didn’t accidentally eat. 

“Mm, need more fish,” He hummed, brushing the bones into the water. Angel gasped that that.

“Why’d you put the bones in the water?” She asked, “Dude!”

“Um--!” The merman flattened his ears against his head again at that, “Help with shelter underwater. Bone.”

Angel looked at him with a confused expression, now standing. Why exactly did he need a shelter underwater?

“Don’t have um . . . coral home, so stick and plant and bone home,” He said, “Sleep.” After saying that he started picking at his teeth with one of his claws. Angel hummed, still confused, but she nodded.

“Alright well um-- I got something for your tail, actually,” She finally said, “Like medicine. I don’t know how much it’ll help but--”

“Tail medicine?” The merman leaned over to her and started clicking his claws on the tiles, “Um-- how do I take it? Tail still hurt.”

“I don’t know actually.”

“Oh.”

Angel looked at the back of one a bottle, looking for instructions. ‘10ml per five US gallons.’ Angel looked at the pool. She  _ really did  _ need that entire shelf.

“Uhhhh,” Angel stammered, “I think you’re supposed to breathe it in? Through water? I have no idea how you’re supposed to take it.” The merman frowned and grabbed one of the bottles from her.

“This for baby betta!”

“Well they don’t have merman medicine!” Angel huffed, “I’m pretty confident a  _ lot  _ of people don’t think you exist.”

The merman mumbled something along the lines of, “I’m big betta,” before  _ biting into the bottle. _

“Oh my god!” Angel jumped when some of the medicine sprayed onto her, using her arm to cover her eyes. When she uncovered her face, the merman had completely eaten the bottle and was in a hissing fit.

“Why is it so nasty?!” He said, “The medicine is nasty, it’s bad!”

“That’s not how it works! That’s not how any of this works!” She said in complete disbelief, “Sometimes medicine tastes bad, and sometimes you like--  _ shouldn’t  _ eat plastic bottles!”

“I’m fine though?” He said, “Can eat plastic. Medicine is  _ nasty! _ ” The merman was baring his teeth the whole time, ears flattened against his head again, and the frill around his neck was slowly unfolding. Angel had her hands settled on her face, but she was still looking up at the merman. The frill unfolded, but it laid behind him instead of standing up like it had earlier.

“Please don’t eat plastic,” Angel sighed, “Don’t eat plastic.” She grabbed the second bottle from between her arm and side, pointing at the water, “Here um-- lay in the water I can probably pour the medicine in the water and you can breathe it in, instead of  _ eating it _ .” The merman coughed harshly before doing as told. His frill folded back up.

He slipped into the water and turned over so he was on his back. He looked mad.

“I wanna eat plastic.”

“ _ No _ , that’s  _ stupid _ ,” Angel retorted, “You’re not stupid.”

“I’m Crybaby.”

“What?” Angel was just about to untwist the bottle cap when he said that.

“What you called me yesterday?” He looked at her, “That’s name now.”

Angel took off the cap and shoved it into her pocket. This merman was really good at confusing her. She started pouring the liquid onto the mermans gills, and he slowly breathed it in. He scrunched up his nose.

“Wait what do you mean ‘that’s name now’?”

“I like the word Crybaby so it’s name now,” He bared his teeth, letting out a low growl, “Medicine still nasty.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Angel shook the bottle, “No, your name can’t really be ‘Crybaby’, I just called you that as a joke!”

“But--” He stuttered, “Sound cool? Sound like name.”

“A name to call someone to kinda pick on em-- you were crying over me leaving the gym.”

“Because I was scared.”

Oh. Now she felt like more of an ass than she already had yesterday. The merman didn’t seem disturbed though, he just shifted so he had his arms crossed on the ledge.

“Sorry--”

“Why can’t I be called Crybaby?”

“It’s like--” Angel paused, “Not something you want to be known as.” 

“Then why does that word exist?” He started tapping his claws on the tile. Angel blinked. What? “If it isn’t a title or name humans want then why does it exist?”

“I don’t--” Angel furrowed her brows, “I don’t know! I didn’t make it.”

“Who made it then?”

“Dude,” Angel sighed, “Do you not have other names you go by?”

The merman paused for a minute, “Don’t like names they call me, so no.” Angel tapped her nails on the bottle, pursing her lips lightly.

“I could go by ‘Baby’.”

“I’m not calling you baby.”

"Cry?”

“. . . Maybe.”

The merman trilled, “Cry then, I’m Cry not stupid.”

_ I hope so.  _ Angel nodded just before shaking her head.

“I’m gonna find a trashcan.”   
  


After throwing away the bottle and grabbing her bags, Angel went to the changing room and got changed into her bathing suit. She tossed the clothes that got soaked into one of the drying machines, which surprisingly worked, before going back to the pool.

The first thing she was greeted with was ‘Cry’ asking, “Why do humans have that?”

“Um-- have what?”

“Split tail.”

Angel looked down at herself. She was wearing shorts instead of sweatpants like she had been earlier and yesterday. 

“Doesn’t it hurt their backs?” He waddled over to her using the first set of fins on him-- which made it look like he was actually walking, “Having two tails hurts mermans.”

“M-” Angel stuttered, “Mermans. Mermaids. Uh-- no we’re supposed to have legs.”

“Legs look weird.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“N-Not like--!” The merman stammered, “Not in bad way! Just weird to me?”

“Well your little fin legs look weird,” Angel said. This time Cry looked down at himself. He slapped the ground with said fins and rocked from side to side for a second.

“Just fins though,” He said, “You don’t have fins.”

“You don’t know that.” 

Cry looked at her, becoming almost unnervingly still. His ears pressed against the sides of his head and the frill unfolded. Angel immediately became nervous at that. Did he not want her to have fins? She  _ didn’t  _ have fins, but still. Angel took a few steps back when he leaned over to her. 

“Where are your fins then?” He asked, “What kind are you? Shifters cannot survive this far inland.”

Angel stammered for a second, “I was joking.” His fin-ears drooped at that. He pouted.

“Don’t joke like that!” He whined, “It um-- it hard to find other merman ‘n stuff. Since pod isn’t here too.” Angel nodded, pulling on a bit of her hair.

“Sorry, I didn’t--”

“Fine. It fine,” Cry backed away and slithered over to the pool. Angel stood there for a second before going to the ramp in the shallow end of the pool. Cry was already swimming around by the time her foot hit the water, and he didn’t seem too bothered about what had just happened anymore. He was swimming across the surface, the spines along his back splitting the water.

Angel got in far enough into the pool for it to be up at her hips.

“What did you mean by shifters not being able to survive this far inland?” Angel asked when Cry pulled his head above the water, “Like-- what are shifters?”

“Um-- think humans call them Singers?” He said quietly, “Starts with ‘S’.” He dragged out the ‘s’ longer than needed, but Angel nodded.

“Um-- Sirens?”

“Yeah,” He replied, “They um-- shift. Wouldn’t be able to be here though. Can look human, have lots of gills on ribs. Had sister or brother that had clutch with one.”

“So they have legs then?” Angel asked, “Wouldn’t they have a better chance of surviving inland than you?”

Cry paused for a second and looped around Angel.

“I am not surviving, I am dying.” He dipped his head under the water again before Angel could really reply, but she was shocked regardless. The merman  _ was  _ longer than the pools deepest side, and as he swam around her it became a lot more obvious the pool wasn’t even long enough for him. If you ever got to see those orcas at sea world before it shut down, that was a good comparison of how much space he had. 

She doesn’t exactly know how she could help though. This was a  _ merman _ , so she couldn’t exactly hit up a zoo and report the fact he was in an abandoned pool. 

Wait.

“Cry,” Angel splashed the water, “Cry, Cry, Cry.” She started swimming in the direction he disappeared in, and soon he was popping up above the water again. He could speak English. He could tell the zoo people what he needed-- or they could help him get to the ocean again.

“What?”

“What if I called a zoo?” She asked, “They could get you out of here.” Cry let out a nervous whine and went back under the water, but he was coming back towards her, “Are-- you don’t hate zoo’s do you?”

“Make me nervous, make me very, very nervous,” He said, mouth barely out of the water, “Zoo tried to take me before they stole me back and put me here.” Angel turned and watched him as he laid on the ramp, proping himself up on his elbow, “But that was also hundred years ago. Are zoos okay now?”

“Um! Yeah they’re very good now. I know a lot of zoos are able to give their animals a  _ lot  _ of land to stay on,” Angel paused, “I’d honestly have to look into like . . . which zoo to call. I don’t think the zoo in this city could house you. You’re a big boy.”

“Big boy,” Cry trilled while nodding. Then he fell back onto the ramp, “Um . . . do you have water zoo’s here?”

“Aquariums?”

“Aqu--” Cry scrunched up his nose, “Quarium? Aquarium? Yeah. Water zoo.”

“I don’t think so? Not in this city at least.”

“Saw merman go to aquarium once,” Cry hummed, “They um-- seemed happy? Because they had bad fin. But I don’t want to forever stay in Aquarium, lots of humans at once is really weird and scary.”

“Well I mean you look healthy enough to survive in the ocean, wait--” Angel walked over to him, “Wait-- so a merman  _ has  _ gone to an aquarium before? I don’t like the fact I haven’t heard about that before.” Cry started chewing on the webbing on his fingers.

“That’s why nervous,” He said, “That’s ‘nother reason why zoo make me nervous. I don’t wanna forever stay in zoo or aquarium. They might have because they can’t survive in ocean without being eaten but don’t want to be kept by human, human might be worse than gym people sometimes?” He started rambling, “And I want pod again. Can’t see brother or sister or whatever human call them because they are really gone, and, um-- gym people say humans experiment on mermans?”

Angel blinked. Ok, so he was  _ very  _ nervous about this. 

“I don’t wanna be experimented on Ms. Lady.” ‘Ms. Lady’? Oh god she hasn’t told him her name yet has she?

“You can call me Angel, but uh--” She was trying to figure out how exactly to respond to that, “I can . . . I can make sure they don’t do that to you.”

There was a pause between both of them. Angel crossed her arms and Cry held his hand in his mouth, lightly biting onto his knuckles. What did happen to the merman that went to the aquarium? Was that the first one to get into human custody? Or has there been more than just that merman to go into an aquarium? 

She could go with him though and make sure they don’t do anything to him right? Angel obviously didn’t want to hand over any ‘custody’ of him. Granted, he was also  _ much  _ larger than any human.

“Two days,” He said, “Let me think about it that long. Please.” Angel nodded.

“Yeah, of course, I was just trying to think of something we could do to help you,” She said, “We don’t have to do it immediately.”

Another pause.   
  
  


An hour past of them talking about different things before Angel finally said she had to go. She  _ was  _ off today, but on top of really wanting to find an appropriate place to call for Cry, she had stuff at home she needed to do. The goodbye was similar to the one yesterday, where Cry was pretty much on the verge of crying. This time though, Cry escorted Angel to the entrance.

She honestly didn’t know how he managed to squeeze through the doors, but she didn’t mention it. Then they were at the entrance, and Cry nervously started heading back to the pool room. She felt bad. She felt  _ really  _ bad. But she headed home for the night. 

When she got there, the first thing she did was clean what she could bring herself to clean, take care of both of the cats, then get on her computer.

How the hell was she supposed to find a zoo or aquarium that could take a merman that’s too big for a  _ gym _ pool? Angel sighed.   
  
  


“Hey! Hi, uhm-- I had a question when it comes to how animals are like . . . given to zoos?” Angel said, “Like-- if someone was to find a uh-- . . . big animal, that you would normally find in a zoo, would I contact you guys about it or--”

“Er-- you could contact animal control to take care of the problem.”

“Well like-- ok so he isn’t like an animal native here?” Angel stammered. How to explain you found a really big fish? “And he’s really docile, I was just wondering if I’d be able to give him to the zoo to take care of?” Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck--

“What kind of animal is he, ma’am?”

“Uhh--” Angel stuttered, “He’s a . . .  _ really  _ big fish.” 

“. . . You want to admit a really big fish?”

“Maybe? I’m-- okay,” Angel put her hand on her forehead, “This-- I think it’d be better to have people from there come to where he is to explain? But like-- I’d have to talk to him--”

“You have to talk to the fish?”

“It’s hard to explain over phone without sounding weird!” Angel sighed. Wow! This was going well, “Do you think you could have someone visit to see this dude or . . .”

“Ma’am I--” The person on the phone stammered themself, “I guess I could see what we could do, just . . . I honestly think it’d be best to contact animal control if the fish is causing you trouble. Just uhh . . . could you tell me how to contact you and where this animal is?”

“Yeah-- yeah uh, could we meet in like . . . three or four days?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“Good! Good, I just-- again I need to talk to him.”

Pause. “. . . Alright, ma’am.”

Angel put her face in her hands.


End file.
